


shake

by liquidcourage



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Gen, Post-Episode The Trial, Resisty AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-10 09:46:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19903732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liquidcourage/pseuds/liquidcourage
Summary: It doesn’t matter what they say, what anyone thinks. He’s an invader, and he’s got this all under control.





	shake

His hands shake as he attempts to hotwire the Voot Runner. He carefully snips the red and black wires and peels back the casing on the ends of both before connecting black to red and red to black so there are no loose ends. 

There is no room for loose ends this time. No room for error.

Succeed or die -- that's all Zim has right now.

The Voot Runner shudders to life. It's an old model, and it'll fly like it too, but it only has to get him away from here. He doesn't think anyone will pay too much attention to such an old - fashioned spacecraft. He thinks he'll be safe with this. (And perhaps -- perhaps there is a bit of nostalgia in flying a ship like this; the ship he favored when he was still an invader - in - training. If so, no one has to know.) He scrambles inside the Voot, bringing everything to full power. There are scattered bits of the thing around the cockpit -- he's not so sure now it will even fly; even his old Voot Runner was in better shape than this.

But it has to. It has to.

Zim quickly grabs the important parts he notices and reattaches them the best he can. The light drive falls back off no matter what he tries, though. That’s -- well, it’s probably not a good sign, but he will simply have to make do. Hopefully, he’s right, and no one will pay any attention to him, and he won’t even need to go lightspeed anyways, and everything will be okay. (And he’s usually right. Yes, of course he’s right.  ~~ If he thinks that enough, it’ll be true, right? ~~ )

He gives up on the light drive and just jumps back in the driver’s seat. He’s wasting time, too much time. He just has to trust in himself. (But that’s hard to do these days -- trust himself? Trust a defective?  ~~ No, don’t go there. It’s not true. Can’t be true ~~ ~~.~~ ) With still shaking hands, he begins to maneuver the Voot Runner into flight. 

The ship shakes as it lifts off, but it doesn’t appear to be falling apart -- yet -- so he continues, hands sliding up the controls and increasing the engine power. It just has to hold together until he’s away from Irk and the Massive. That’s it. That’s all. He can do that. He’s skilled in the art of flight. He was top of his class. Yes, he can do this. Zim grits his teeth and pushes harder on the controls, and a small smirk starts to cross his face. 

Yes, he can do this. 

His hands aren’t shaking anymore. 

He forces the ship to push harder.  _ This  _ is what he was made to do!  _ This _ is what he’s good for! He’s a soldier, an invader -- it doesn’t matter what they say, what anyone thinks. He’s an  _ invader _ , and he’s got this all under control. The ship still shudders a bit, but it seems to have eased out some, and he thinks most likely it was the effort of taking off that caused a lot of it. His confidence returning, he thinks it may even hold to get him out of the solar system -- maybe even further, if he’s careful with it. 

He’s on the outskirts of the atmosphere now, pink skies beginning to fade into the cold void of space. He doesn’t think he’ll ever see these pink skies again. Maybe it’s for the best, he tells himself. 

He’s going to do it, he realizes. He’s going to escape Irk! Maybe he’ll even make it back to Earth, eventually. He doesn’t dare call GIR right now -- doesn’t want to put out a signal like that, but now he’s starting to think he stands a chance of obtaining his old equipment, if not at returning (somewhat) to his life before. 

The Voot Runner breaks the atmosphere without falling apart, and he can barely contain himself. “Yes! Yes! Victory for  _ Zim _ !” He cheers, throwing his arms up. 

His small frame shakes with exhilaration. Not only is he escaping death, but he’s fleeing from the Irken empire and the Tallest! The _audacity_! He feels powerful, untouchable -- call him defective, will you? He’ll show you! He’s not incompetent; he’s not stupid! He pushes the ship harder, pushes it to go faster -- he can get out of the solar system, make it to a planet where he can blend in long enough to steal a different ship. He’s so close, so, so close! Only a few more minutes until he’s out of the system and then he can start to find a planet and ditch this -- this  _ garbage _ and get something better.

And then the Voot Runner shakes violently -- caught in a tractor beam. 

For a moment, he thinks the ship is falling apart. It only takes him a few seconds to realize that the ship is, in fact, holding together -- but he’s being pulled in. 

“No. . . no -- Zim. . . failed? I’m not supposed to  _ fail _ .” 

He shudders, fear welling up in his squeedily - spooch as he gets pulled ever closer to the larger ship. His PAK legs spring out and he takes up a defensive position, falling to the back of the Voot as the little Runner is docked. 

The Voot opens.

**Author's Note:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ if i were to write a resisty au, this would be how i'd start it. i'm not tryna start long fics right now though, so you can take it that way -- or if you want a Bad End, you can say the massive and the tallest caught up with zim. it's definitely an au ending of the trial though. 
> 
> inspired a bit by [this tumblr post](https://ezwriting.tumblr.com/post/186455410216/1153). and at the end of the fic, i'm definetely picturing zim like in [this pic](https://ezwriting.tumblr.com/post/186451918561/charlimes-hmmmmmmmm).
> 
> find me on [tumblr](https://ezwriting.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
